Moore's Law in combination with advances in the miniaturization of packaging of electronics has enabled the development of highly functional consumer electronic devices with smaller and smaller housings. For example recently tablet computers and thin light weight “ultrabook” notebook computers that offer computer application functionality comparable to desktop computer are available. In these new devices one or more of the housing walls are sometimes made out of metal instead of plastics. Metal has advantages as far as thinness, strength, durability, appearance and heat dissipation-which is important given the density of electronics within the housings. Presently, for the most part, these consumer electronic devices are expected to provide wireless connectivity to wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) or cellular networks, or both. Typically consumer electronic devices such as notebook computers or tablet computers use internal antennas contained within their housings. Unfortunately metal blocks wireless signals (radio waves) which makes it problematic to make more of the device housing metal and incorporate internal antennas for wireless connectivity.
What is needed is an antenna that can be used inside a metal housing.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.